New Study of Jihadi WMD Chatter

The Jihadi Websites Monitoring Group at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzlia, Israel, has produced a very interesting report about WMD discussions on jihadi internet forums (hat tip: Nawaf).

I am not surprised that this original work is coming out of Herzlia, for it was Reuven Paz – the pioneer of online jihadism studies – who wrote some of the earliest serious analyses of jihadi intentions regarding WMD.

Since then many have made valuable contributions this literature, including Jonathan Spyer , Jerry Long,  Andrea Plebani, Sammy Salama and Lydia Hansell, Anne Speckhard, and others.

At my own FFI, Anne Stenersen and others have also conducted in-depth studies on this. (In the most fascinating of these, Anne collaborated with FFI scientists to objectively assess the quality and effectiveness of the many WMD recipes and instruction manuals circulating on the forums, but this report is unfortunately exempt from public disclosure, for obvious reasons.)

I have yet to read Gary Ackerman and Jeremy Tamsett’s recent book, but it looks promising.  Finally I should mention that Rolf Mowatt Larsen (ex-CIA, now Harvard Kennedy school) is currently preparing at least one academic study on AQ and WMD, and I am sure it will set a new standard in the field.

PS  If I left our any other major studies in this brief review, please let me know in the comments.